Drama

Got my hair cut at the weekend. Hardly blog-worthy, now that it's very short and gets a trim every month or so. But I just caught a glimpse of the back of my head in a strategically placed mirror and noticed that I have a mini-mullet.

Shit, shit, shit !

Best. Thai. Curry. Ever.

...is what S made for dinner on Saturday. In fact it was so good we had the leftovers for breakfast on Sunday.

Reminded me of when we were dating (i.e. spending as many weekends together as we could afford*). We'd get more curry than we could possibly eat from the best take-away in Sheffield, have a feast, and then eat the rest cold the next morning with mugs of tea. Not everyone's idea of ideal food on a romantic weekend perhaps, but it worked out well for us.

* With heartfelt thanks to BMI Baby, purveyor of cheap fares between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Nottingham East Midlands.

Off to Gare du Nord

...in a little while to pick up the lovely Miss Cookie.

Started to make a list of things to do while she is here, but realized my list of things to do is actually a list of restaurants and food shops to visit and things to eat. I don't think she'll mind too much. Ah Paris.

2 days in Paris

Is a lovely film. I'm a sucker for movies that take place in Paris and I'm a sucker for movies about cross-cultural relationships, but having loathed Before Sunset, I went in to this one (which Julie Delpy directs as well as stars in) with lowered expectations, and came out delighted.

I could swear some of the dialogues are conversations I've had in real life, verbatim - only better, if that makes sense.

Adam Goldberg manages to play a sarcastic hypochondriac without sacrificing his masculinity - think Woody Allen-type humor, but with tattoos and a hairy chest. Julie Delpy's character is beautiful and neurotic and arty, but likeable and unpretentious.

The clichés are there (dumb American tourists! rude Parisian taxi drivers !) but Delpy has fun with them and uses them to wink at her audience rather than as the film's only comic motor, and it works.

Loved it.

Gluttony is

... walking an extra few blocks to the best boulangerie I know instead of going to any one of half a dozen perfectly decent closer ones, getting 2 lemons tarts for breakfast and one baguette, and eating half the bread, still oven-warm, on my way home.

Last night's dinner

Loup de mer, which I think is sea bass, poached.
New potatoes, just boiled in their jackets.
Sauce made of a fair amount of good butter, melted and warmed but not left to cook, finely chopped shallots, and juice of half a lemon, liberally poured over fish and potatoes. Mmmmmm.

What's in your bag ?

Inspired by a Flickr group, and my mother, who is always horrified by the weight when I ask her to hold my bag for a second.

Umbrella and sunglasses.
Plain glasses.
Lip balm and lip stick. (At least one, often more !)
A powder compact with a built-in mirror and a separate little mirror in a black velvet pouch. Why ? No idea. I don't even use the powder to touch up during the day, but it makes me feel better to have it.
Wallet and keys. (What's in my wallet is a whole other post)
Mobile phone and digital camera.
Public transportation pass and book to read in the Metro.
Waterproof hat in case of rain that warrants a little something but is not umbrella-worthy.
Pantyliner in case it all gets too much for the Mooncup and Kleenex. (In case of paperless public bathrooms and / or weepy films)
Random papers and ticket stubs and sticks of cardboard from Sephora that were once perfume samples but no longer smell of anything.

3 things

• Flickr is dangerously addictive.


• Bought old editions of Elizabeth David's French Country Cooking and Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern Food at a second-hand book store for 6 euros ! Classics that have been part of my mother's cookbook collection for as long as I can remember, and now I have my own copies.


• Have just got a weekly "subscription" of organic fruit and veggies, locally or regionally grown whenever possible: every Wednesday I get to pick up a random assortment of in-season goodness from a neighborhood store. Can't wait to see what's in the basket tomorrow !

Jean-Paul ? Gaultier !

Smart and successful people

...don't necessarily have a lot of common sense.

Case in point, the lovely lady who requests a meeting with my boss. Meeting fixed. Fine. I ask for her phone number in case I need to get in touch to change the appointment. She mentions specifically that she will be travelling for the whole week prior to the meeting and gives me a number. Silly me assumes that's a cell phone. You would too, right ?

Murphy's Law being what it is, I need to cancel the meeting and as soon as I find out, I leave a voice mail a day for 3 days. No response. Lovely lady shows up at appointed time. Boss is not here. I apologize profusely for not having managed to reach her and we check the number she had given me - yep, it's her home office line.

Obviously the moral of the story is that I should never assume anything. But bloody hell it's annoying.

Oh. My.

Reading a NY Times food section article called "Fat, Glorious Fat, Moves to the Center of the Plate" half an hour before lunchtime is probably not a good idea...

What's in a name ?

On the metro a baby is fussing in its fancy McLaren pram and I hear the father say, "Arrête, Toscane".

Not sure whether that calls for a smile or a smirk.

Time flies

.... and we all know it, but sometimes little incidents really bring it home - such as having a meal outside, watching a group of kids play around with a soccer ball. A few of them start to chant, "Et un, et deux, et trois - zéro" and it occurs to me that they weren't even born in 1998 when Les Bleus beat Brazil 3-0 in the World Cup final, and yet there they are, owning that little song, and I remember that day and night as if it were yesterday.

Talking about diets

In some circles it's a form of female bonding, or so it seems. Or perhaps not...

My boss tells me today that she didn't eat the sushi I ordered for her lunch because she's on a diet. (Huh? Sushi seems to be the ideal diet food to me, but I tell myself that perhaps she's avoiding the carbs in the rice). Anyway, after some short diet blabla (during which I confess that my diets consist of not having seconds, and only for about 2 days before I lose the will power even for that) I tell her that she looks great, which is the truth - granted I've never seen her in a bathing suit, but dressed - and she does dress very well - she has a figure most women would envy, honestly.

To which she replies, on her way out the door, "Thanks, but everything is relative".

Now I'm not usually paranoid (but everyone really is out to get me! nah, just kidding) or overly sensitive, but... ouch, no ?

A wannabe Sartorialist post

Love this woman's take on white for summer - the shoes, the bag, the lace trim on her dress, the flesh-tone fishnets. White shoes in general are hard to do right, I think - they often look cheap for some reason, but hers are great.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Good - a 3-day weekend spent visiting dear friends whom I hadn't seen in far too long. Actually, scratch good and make that fabulous.

Bad - a dreadful sore throat, and generally feeling phlegmy and achey and tired. Silver lining: drinking loads of grog this evening in an effort to nip it in the bud.

Ugly - a deadline looming at work, a big project that needs to be wrapped up by June 28th. Wouldn't be too bad except that my boss is a first-class procrastinator (trust me, it takes one to know one) and therefore nothing is at the stage where it should be by now.

The joys

... of living with a smart-ass.

S, coming back from the supermarket:
- I got asparagus soup, the other choices were tomahto and mushroom.
- Oh good, cause I don't like tomayto soup.
S, completely deadpan:
- This was tomahto.

Playing tag

...as per the lovely JB.

Each person tagged gives seven random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write on their blog seven facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and need to read your blog.


1. Just about the only place in the world I'm not particularly interested in travelling to is sub-saharan Africa, and I don't like admitting it because I'm afraid that makes me seem racist. Is that silly?


2. I'm over loving my (not so) new job. In fact, I'm over working. Considering how many years I have left before retirement, and the unlikelyhood of winning the lottery, or marrying rich, this may be problem.


3. One of my plants died today; or rather, I decided today it was beyond saving. OK, so it's only a plant and not a pet, but it still feels sad. And the spot where it lived seems so empty.


4. I'm torn between yearning for minimalism and being a pack-rat at heart.


5. S just got tickets to go see Pirates 3 later on tonight and I'm absurdly excited.


6. I'm intrigued by sitemeters, but think that if no one reads my stuff I'd rather not know!


7. One of my co-workers gave a great big "awwwwww", looking at something behind me in a restaurant, and I turned around, honestly expecting to see a great dog face. But it was a baby. Go figure...

I tag Cookie, Machiruda, Y, Iggy, Pickychick, Kimono Hime, and Livingin Oz.

Aaaaaaand....

... 56 !

Wish list - part 2

Ali Leather Shoulder Flap, from the Coach Legacy line.

Just because.